Just A Bad Day
by ShindaSekai
Summary: Link is trying hard to convince Sheik that life can be fun, and drags him into a new kind of adventure, but everything seems to go wrong. A short one-shot, contains Shink fluff. (with Sheik being male, and his own character)


Sheik didn't know why he loved the Hero of Time.

Link was bold, troublesome, bothersome, naïve and childish. Well, to be precise, he _was_ a child, caught in an adult's body, but Sheik thought that this was not to be used as an excuse for everything.

Sheik knew why everyone else loved the hero, though. He was friendly, brave, selfless and helped anyone who was in trouble -even if being in trouble meant that they were too lazy to do certain things- yet it would've never occurred to Link, that they were actually exploiting him.

Furthermore, he was handsome. Which was an asset the hero himself was never really conscious of, unlike the group of female fans he had already gathered around himself, and that was growing constantly in numbers with every new village he visited.

However, most people did not see past his good traits, for they were not engaged in deeper business with Link. Unlike Sheik, whose duty to guide the hero and to teach him songs proved to be a pain in the ass, because patience was nothing Link had been gifted with, and whenever the Sheikah explained a specifically hard task to the boy, the latter would be on his heels without taking his time to listen to the valuable advice from his guide. Sheik had every reason to be annoyed with the hero, and wishing he could kick his butt seemed absolutely sustainable and natural, yet he had fallen for him, and there was no way out of this labyrinth of emotions he was running through -and getting lost- on a daily base.

Their first encounter had been the biggest disappointment in Sheik's life so far. From all the expectations he had in a hero that would save Hyrule, and after hearing Zelda and Impa speak so confidently about him, he almost felt betrayed when this boy, clad in green, with a fairy bobbing beside his pointed ear, stood before him, clueless as to what he was actually doing in this place. Pushing aside his first impression, he told himself that he should not hastily judge upon appearance, but as soon as he had finished his well-prepared speech, the young hero dashed off, and ran out of the cathedral and straight into the arms of a ReDead.

That was not the only time Sheik had to help Link out of the trouble he had run himself into.

In the depths of the forest temple, he had to untangle the hero's tunic from the branches of a tree after a Wallmaster had grabbed and hurled him straight into a thick bundle of countless twigs.

In the active volcano under the Goron City, Link had almost thrown himself in the bubbling lava as he tried to leap over the gap that separated the safe edge and the broken bridge, had Sheik not been there to grab his arm and pull him back on safe ground.

Link's tongue would probably have been glued to the ice forever, had the Sheikah not used blue fire to melt the red ice that Link had tried to lick -for a reason Sheik was oblivious of, and he was convinced that he would rather not know- in the ice cavern, and if he hadn't advised him to wear the Zora garb, he would have put on his iron boots along with the green tunic in the temple under Lake Hylia and drowned.

Sheik didn't even want to think about what would happen as soon as they entered the tomb of the Sheikah -the temple that was still lying ahead of them- but he swore to himself he would venture inside alone beforehand, and watch out for every guillotine before he let the hero inside. He'd rather not have to collect his chopped off head and explain to the princess why she would have to look for a new hero.

These were the dangers that Sheik could cope with, the situations he could foresee and the help he could provide, but the trouble Link had put him in _now_ was far beyond his control.

"Sheik, why are you always in a bad mood?" he had asked the Sheikah, when the latter had pressed the hero to urge forward, as time was a precious thing that they were short of.

"I am not always in a bad mood," he had answered, "but unlike you I have understood the gravity of the situation."

However, Link had insisted on having a day off, _and _spending it with Sheik, determined to make him come out of his shell, and maybe reward his efforts with a smile.

Sheik regretted having given in to Link's whining, just to stop the hero from wearing the childish pout on his face throughout the whole day, but the regret came late - _too late_, he thought as he climbed into the wonky canoe. How much worse could the day really become anyway? Link had taken him to the shooting gallery in Kakariko where, armed with a tacky slingshot, he had miserably lost against the hero -and he really hated to admit failure-; they had proceeded to the former guard house just behind the gate to Castle Town to smash pots, and after being chased out to Hyrule Field, Link hit upon the formidable idea of hunting Poes.

Sheik gingerly touched the side of his head where the lamp of a Poe had struck him hard and moaned silently. Link took the tiller and led them to the middle of the pond, thrust a fishing rod into Sheik's hand and cast his own, watching as the lure disappeared under the water surface.

Sheik had never tried to fish before -it seemed absolutely surreal in the face of the events that were stirring up Hyrule- and he gave Link a helpless look before he eventually let his own rod into the water, waiting for any fish to take the bait.

After half an hour of unsuccessful waiting, trying and waiting some more, Sheik was growing frustrated. Beside him, Link was filling their boat with his caught fish, and joyfully cried out whenever he felt a tug on his rod. Judging from the sheer force he put into reeling his next victim in, Link must have caught a big fish, as he was leaning backwards and accidentally stabbed Sheik's side with the end of the rod, not even hearing the latter's protest. He launched himself on the big Hylian loach, pulled and grunted, leaned backwards and forwards, put a foot on the verge of the canoe when he was sure he could call the rare fish his own, but when the rod suddenly broke, he toppled and tumbled and fell into the water with a battle cry, tipping their canoe over. Sheik could neither keep the balance, nor prevent the boat from keeling over, and together with their equipment, he helplessly plunged into the cold water.

"This was the LAST time you persuaded me to spend my days wasting my time in such a ridiculous way!" Sheik fulminated while they were walking back to the ranch, clothes and hair still dripping wet from their involuntary dive. Link walked a few steps behind him, intimidated by the fury radiating from the Sheikah's body, and he didn't dare to speak. All he wanted was to show his stern guide that life could be enjoyable even if one had to fulfil hard tasks, including saving the world.

"You made me hit targets with a kid's toy, smash ridiculous pots just because someone once told you they hid rupees in them and chase Poes in the open field when we should be on our way to the sacred temple to awake the fifth sage, seriously Link, what were you thinking?! And fishing just was utterly stupid and the most absurd idea you could have come up with!" Sheik went on ranting, as he turned to the gate of Lon Lon Ranch and walked up the hill.

"I told you I was sorry," Link muttered as he trotted behind him like a beaten dog, and followed him inside the house, where Malon was preparing dinner, and unsuccessfully trying to suppress a laughter.

The reason why Sheik was so angry was that, apart from wasting precious time, he had failed to beat Link in any of their games, had been humiliated, and had gotten wet, which meant that he had to change his clothes _and _remove his cowl to let it dry, thus enabling the hero to see more of his face than only the crimson eyes. He was angry and anxious, and knowing that he was anxious, made him even more annoyed.

He stomped up the stairs and into the room he shared with the Hylian boy, slammed the door and sat down on the bed, cursing. Link did not follow him though, and he sighed as he moved the chest of drawers to block the door, then removed the damp exoskeleton that clung to his body like a second skin and hung it over the chair to let it dry, along with the cowl. Naked and cold, he decided to rummage through the drawers, pulled out a pair of soft pants and a shirt that probably belonged to Ingo, put them on and sat down on the bed, waiting for his cowl to dry.

Link turned up late that night, and tentatively knocked on the door before he opened it ajar. Sheik was now sitting beside the window, still dressed in Ingo's clothes, but with his cowl wrapped around his neck again, staring at the stars.

"I am really sorry, Sheik," Link began and approached the Sheikah, "I didn't mean to make you angry. Are you still mad at me?"

Sheik turned around to face the boy and offered him a glare, though his anger had vanished. Link's brows were furrowed in a worried way and his big blue eyes looked at him pleadingly, asking for forgiveness.

Sheik sighed audibly. "Hero, we cannot afford to wander around carelessly in times like these. I can understand that you need some rest from time to time, but you really should consider using your brain when choosing your pastime. I am your guide, not your playfellow. You need to grow up, Link!"

Link bit his lower lip, obviously fighting his emotions, but he seemed to have lost the fight, for his blue eyes suddenly became watery and a tear stole its way out of the corner of his eye and ran down his cheek.

Sheik was dumbfounded. He had expected every other possible reaction from Link, but seeing the hero look at him like a beaten puppy with tears running down his face would have been his last guess.

"Link," he said softly and got up from the window sill, "why are you crying?"

"Because," Link sniffed, "I am sorry and I don't want you to be mad at me."

He sighed. "I am not mad at you. Well, at least no longer."

"Are you not?"

"No. Now stop crying," he said and took the hero's face in his hands, gently rubbing his thumb over his wet cheek.

"I'm really sorry about today," Link said, "I know you are right about the things you say. I should be fulfilling my duty rather than waste my time with silly adventures. I should act my age rather than play kid's games. I feel so torn between being the child I was before I woke up seven years later, and becoming the adult that stepped into this world tainted by Ganondorf."

Sheik let go of the hero's face but didn't break the eye contact, and he remembered why he loved him. Underneath the troublesome, childish and sometimes happy surface stood a boy that had been deprived of seven long years of his life, struggling with becoming the saviour of Hyrule and an adult man, and he was a fighter, but he had been burdened with the world's hardships, and could not be blamed for not being able to cope with all of this at once.

He did not even flinch when the Hylian reached out to grab his cowl and pull it down, and when he felt the softness of his lips against his own, and the warmth of his body pressed against him, he finally understood that Link needed him. Not merely as a guide, but as his support, his solace, his friend. As his lover.

_**A/N: I admit, I usually don't write this kind of stories, but I felt like throwing in a short story with some Shink fluff. I'm sorry for making Link such a dork, but I couldn't help but think of him like that considering the fact that he actually does play all these silly things when, in fact, he should really be saving the world, not fishing in the pond for ridiculously long hours. And poor Sheik, he really had a bad day. Anyway, the ending turned out rather sappy for my liking (I'm not so much into the lovey-dovey stuff), so this was rather out of character, but I still hope you enjoyed reading this short one-shot. Please review! **_


End file.
